Issues in Applied Linguistics

The British independent ('indie') music scene is a disparate community brought together by participation in a distinctive event, the gig. By examining the participant framework of gigs, this article shows gigs to be highly structured and repetitive events. Physical placement is an indicator of the participant's level of orientation to the musical performance, the type of physical activity that participant will be engaged in, as well as the participant's age, experience, and professional status. This participant framework also informs an ideology of aging within the 'youth' culture of indie music.